Changing the Course of a Life

Our Mission

We walk arm-in-arm with the most vulnerable refugee families to help them achieve what they can’t on their own: personal safety, well-being, and the ability to leverage resources to realize their goals for a better future.

Our Unique Purpose

Our unique purpose is to assist refugees who, after fleeing danger, reside in places where there are limited or no resources. Individual skills and needs are assessed, then resources are allocated to help each family identify and achieve their specific path to happiness and self-reliance.

Our Vision

To extend one-on-one support to stranded refugees around the world so they can realize hope and attain a brighter future in a free and safe location.

Our Goals

With your generous donations, we are able to assist refugees with the following:

Value Statement

Integrity, Impartiality, Compassion

Why Help Refugees: Turkey - A Case Study

The Refugee Crisis in Turkey (from 2021)

Over 29 million refugees from around the world have been forced to flee their native countries because of religious persecution, ethnic discrimination, war, and political unrest. Four million of those families, individuals, and children have made a difficult journey to Turkey seeking safety. Today, Turkey is the world’s largest refugee-hosting country. 1.2 million of those refugees are children. Turkey has generously allowed these refugees in, but they are still considered stateless and struggle to provide the basics for their families, give their children an education, and survive continued persecution.

Many refugees cannot qualify for food, healthcare, or obtain work permits. They are penalized by deportation if found working without work permits. Deportation can be a “death sentence” as they would be returning to the countries from which they escaped. Some become “refugees recycled” – unpaid labor by unscrupulous employers. Others become victims of human trafficking. Many continue to be actively hunted by the family, tribal, or terrorist violence they fled and cannot leave their shelters without risking assault, or worse.

Each day is a struggle to feed their children and to find the hope to keep working for something better. At times, murder-suicide is seen as their only solution.

Although many refugees are educated with professional or academic degrees, they are not allowed to support their families. Most apply to be resettled to a welcoming country through their new location’s refugee office or the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees. Refugees live “a life in limbo,” waiting an average of 17 years, before being able to leave their poverty-stricken situation and resettle into a new country that will provide safety, independence, and hope.

The refugees in Turkey are in desperate need of meals, resources, and support. Arm in Arm Outreach was created to help them. We partner with trustworthy friends in that area who are able to distribute food and goods to those refugees.

You can bring hope to refugees in Turkey with your generous donations.

Statistics

Turkey hosts the largest number of refugees, with nearly 3.7 million people. (1)
Turkey continues to be the world’s largest refugee-hosting country, accounting for nearly 15% of all people displaced across borders. (2)
An estimated 35 million (42%) of the 82.4 million forcibly displaced people are children below 18 years of age (end-2020). (1)
1 million children were born as refugees (1)
An estimated 35 million (42%) of the 82.4 million forcibly displaced people are children below 18 years of age (end-2020).
By the end of 2020, 82.4 million individuals were forcibly displaced worldwide as a result of persecution, conflict, violence or human rights violations. (2)
Refugees children are five times more likely to be out of school than their non-refugee peers. (2)
Only 3.4 million of the 7.1 million refugees of school-age were enrolled in primary or secondary education in 2018. More than half of them — 3.7 million — did not go to school. (2)
Today, there are over 80 million people around the globe who have been forced, or made the painful choice, to leave their home. After years of fleeing violence, famine and extreme poverty, their greatest hope is that they’ll find a safe place to rebuild their lives and call home. (3)
There are over 4 million refugees in Turkey (4)
Children are dramatically over-represented among the world’s refugees. Children make up less than one third of the global population, but they were 50 per cent of the world’s refugees in 2019. (5)
The average stay today in a camp is 17 years. (6)
Among the 3.6 million Syrian refugees living in Turkey are 1.2 million children, many of whom have suffered intense emotional and mental trauma (7)
With uncertainty mounting throughout Afghanistan, the IRC is concerned that we could see increases in violence against women and child marriage. (8)

Mission